studio makkink & bey: a great ‘chairbox’ idea

I am kinda into chairs at the moment because I have to write my bachelor thesis and as I like chairs a lot I choose for them as the main topic…

so the arched gallery in the nai, netherlands architecture institute, maastricht is showing an installation called ‘living with things’ by rotterdam-based architect rianne makkink & designer jurgen bey. the creative duo evoke the industrial hall, where they lived until recently, in the 3th level of the institute – a space that they regarded as the ideal house.

this chair is a little detail of the hole exhibition and one of my favorites. I like the combination of seating object and private space. armchair in a box. and when you sit inside you look through a tv window and you can observe whats going on outside. the only disruptive element are the black stickers on the box.

living-with-things-by-studio-makkink-bey

chair-by-studio-makkink-bey

the forgotten egg chair

this is the egg chair (looks like a halved surprise egg) I saw yesterday in the nai, netherlands architecture institute, in maastricht.

the chair is designed by english architects alison and peter smithsons in 1956 and I couldn’t find it the 1000 chairs book by taschen. even google is almost not giving any informations about it. so, here it is – the egg chair – arne jacobsen has designed the famous version;-) – which colour reminds me of the yolk of the egg in my breakfast.

egg-chair-by-alison-peter-smithsons

the plastic egg chair was designed for the smithsons
‘house of the future’, 1956 – an visionary ‘model home’

apartamento magazine: the kind version of mtv’s ‘cribs’

it’s a pleasure to read the apartamento magazine: no annoying advertising pages, no lifestyle tips, no luxury items I can’t afford, no butts and tits (ok, I do not mind these normally.. ).

just people who show how they life in their private moments and you just think that you want to sit next too them and share a cookie with them.

apartamento-magazine.

2nd issue of the bi-annual ‘everyday life interiors magazine’

british designer max lamb, chinese artist terence koh, argentinian artist julian gatto, london-based photographer felix friedmann, and many more..

issey miyake watch: what will ross create??

british designer ross lovegrove has announced in january during the design week in cologne that he is collaborating with issey miyake. he said that for him a dream comes true that he is able work with the japanese designer. I wouldn’t mind either to work with him.. ;-)

creatives like japanese designer naoto fukasawa or finish designer harri koskinen have already worked for miyake’s watch brand and now I am curious what the appointed captain organic will design. is it a watch in a shape of a waterdrop? or a membranous shape that surrounds the wrist? we will see in march. and as far as I know it is the first watch designed by lovegrove.

ross-lovegrove-for-issey-miyake.

a sketch – a result of a telephone conversation –
I just had ross in my mind

heimatdesign: we found a designer from dortmund!

I have been at the surface exhibition at the designers fair in cologne last month. see the previous post. I was disappointed that the company responsible for the project – heimatdesign (who describe themselves as a platform for young local talent) – did not actually present any german designs.

2 weeks ago they moved with the exhibition to dortmund, germany to participate in the transversale – an event about art and design. they settled down in a great location and added a new designer. one of them is dortmund-based designer pierre kracht who was one of 30 contributors at the [d3] design contest at the imm.

pierre-kracht-wrapped

click here for more

sphinx maastricht: wash-basins, next to urinals

when you find yourself in the south of the netherlands and you talk about bathroom facilities you are automatically talking about sphinx. It is an important player in the european bathroom market, which is celebrating 175 years in business.

the amazing things is that you imagine hundreds of people working in the factory. especially because my experiences with ceramics are reduced to making some cups. I’ve expected that working with this fragile material is a primary manual work. but in fact there are just 15 employees in the rotating shifts. basically the hole production is accomplish by machinery. just the technical details and frequent observations are still done by humans.

sphinx-factory

sphinx factory inside – on the right is the massive oven
around 1000 sanitary arrangements are manufactured every day

toilet-mould

toilet mould made of porous plastic material – its more expensive than plaster but can be used about 30.000 times

clay-washbasin

freshly moulded clay washbasin

sphinx-maastricht

air-dried, glazed toilets with a screenprinted logo
which are ready for baking

washbasin-before-baking1

on the way into the oven – assembly line baking at 1200 degrees